date night tradition

one of my most anticipated Christmas traditions is the date night mark and I schedule in early fall when we order our tickets for Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village. the village is a collection of historic buildings from the 18th century- from the Firestone Farm, to Thomas Edison's laboratories, and of course Henry Ford's Model Ts. during Holiday Nights, employees dress in costume; fire pits and warming stations are set up all around the village; carolers stroll through the streets; houses are decorated period style; the Model Ts run with passengers covered in blankets; horse drawn wagons ride up and down the streets carrying guests singing Christmas carols; and the ice skating rink is full of young and old alike.

the first year we attempted to make a special family memory by taking the boys. needless to say, it wasn't the evening mark and I had envisioned. after our early departure year one, year two we made it a date night. last year, mark injured his back in early december, and we were unable to attend. so this year, we were both looking forward to continuing our Christmas tradition.

we asked s.o.r. to get behind the camera and take a rare photo of just mom and dad:

and then we turned the camera on ourselves, just for fun:
the village carolers: it was really cold saturday night and snowing off and on during the entire night. when we reached the ice skating rink, mark encouraged me to give it a try. he had given me skating lessons for Christmas in 2006. the first lesson, shelly asked me why I wanted to learn how to skate. my response was- "to be able to skate at Greenfield Village during Holiday Nights." how surprised was I when she said- "I do that." "You do that?" "Yes, the village hires me to skate around the rink all night in costume." oh my goodness!

so I learned how to make my way around the rink without falling and actually graduated level 1 with flying colors. unfortunately I haven't been on the ice for over a year and the skates I borrowed didn't have toe picks! yikes! my beginning wasn't pretty, but I managed a few laps around the rink. and guess who was there? shelly! my ice skating instructor!

needless to say, it was an all round special evening with my wonderful husband! thanks sweet!